pmarca

14 ms·

121.
by pmarca 13y ago
Yes, I (roughly) agree. The consumer companies Scott was talking about are ones where they need to generate a "lightning in a bottle" effect to work as investments. There are other kinds of consumer companies that are much more
122.
by pmarca 13y ago
In our case that isn't actually how we think about any of this. First, when we (or any venture firm) makes an A-round investment, we typically reserve another 2-3x of the A-round investment size for participation in future follow-on ro
123.
by pmarca 13y ago
Maybe you're right, but that's not what Scott was saying and that's not what I think. In my own words: consumer startups more and more have this very interesting "lightning in a bottle" effect where sometimes they t
124.
by pmarca 13y ago
I would think that a practicing fruit fly geneticist would get excited when fruit flies come up, not snarky :-).
125.
by pmarca 13y ago
And there are a lot of them.
126.
by pmarca 13y ago
Also not why :-).
127.
by pmarca 13y ago
That's not why :-).
128.
by pmarca 13y ago
Recent enterprise home runs -- VMWare, Salesforce.com, Workday, SuccessFactors, 3Par, Data Domain, ... there have been a bunch. Just recently Palo Alto Networks, Fireeye, a bunch of others.
129.
by pmarca 13y ago
It is also worth noting that this follows a major drought in enterprise startups. I don't have the numbers (you might know) but enterprise startup activity took a gigantic dip after the 2000 crash when large enterprises en masse all b
130.
by pmarca 13y ago
I'm actually not even sure (without checking) if we have any drag-along rights from the YC Start Fund investments. If so, I don't think we have ever claimed them. We would never force a company to take our money if they didn&#x2
131.
by pmarca 13y ago
Just to be clear we didn't publicly announce that we are not doing Series A investments anymore. They remain the bread and butter of what we do. Scott was making a more nuanced point about a difference between how we look at consumer
132.
by pmarca 13y ago
It's very important for a lot of people, particularly people who can't do what Jack/Ev/Noah can do and did, to believe that it's all luck.
133.
by pmarca 13y ago
Yes but what hedge funds would do (are undoubtedly doing) is raise a huge amount of money on margin and use it to arbitrage the spread between these and related instruments with other durations. Of course this can go horribly wrong; read t
134.
by pmarca 13y ago
Priceless: "Believe me, normally people are excited when I come to their stores," Winfrey said. "It's very unusual when I'm not practically dragged into a boutique. Dozens of people will be pressing their noses agai
135.
by pmarca 13y ago
I pulled the latest on the Oprah situation since I can't resist: During an interview last week with Entertainment Tonight, Winfrey was asked if she had personally experienced racism. She responded with an anecdote about a clerk a
136.
by pmarca 13y ago
Let's separate the two: (a) Very cheap products -- the problem with very cheap products is that you can't afford to spend very much money selling or marketing them unless you are selling them in gigantic volume. We see this a lot
137.
by pmarca 13y ago
Our favorite book is "Power Base Selling" by Jim Holden -- it's focused on high-end sales -- but will do a good job of getting you into the mindset. This is the world high-end salespeople doing multi-million dollar software
138.
by pmarca 13y ago
Yes! You ask polite questions. "Have you been here before? What product do you use today? What are you looking for? That's a beautiful watch/scarf/sweater. Where are you visiting from? What do you do for fun?&quot
139.
by pmarca 13y ago
Actually, I don't. Disruptive employees invariably have an internal narrative in their own minds that says they're attempting to speak truth to power. In reality they're using that as an excuse to be disruptive.
140.
by pmarca 13y ago
Yes. This is why it is often a good idea to restart founder vesting when you raise a funding round -- it is EXTREMELY rare for a founding team to actually hold together all the way through to success. Generally at least one founder feels
141.
by pmarca 13y ago
My view -- which marketing people frequently yell at me for having, so take it for what it's worth -- There are product categories outside of tech (in particular) that are sold to consumers, whose products are more or less interchangea
142.
by pmarca 13y ago
Yep. Scott's nightmare was that everyone would think his products were fine.
143.
by pmarca 13y ago
So that's why you're reading them?
144.
by pmarca 13y ago
I feel as though your comment overly generalizes. Don't just blindly follow it; it can be proven to be wrong.
145.
by pmarca 13y ago
That's what pain in the ass employees who get fired for being pains in the ass always think on their way out the door.
146.
by pmarca 13y ago
I forgot to add -- when a salesperson in an enterprise software company is getting paid $1 million+ per year in cash, you'll invariably find she's an expert qualifier.
147.
by pmarca 13y ago
Which is why you're reading them, right?
148.
by pmarca 13y ago
Mark's advice on these topics is some of the best ever.
149.
by pmarca 13y ago
"That's why you want to split the stock evenly with co-founders you know will put as much effort/time into it." That's exactly right. One way to interpret Slava's advice is as a gut check -- if you're co
150.
by pmarca 13y ago
That's a great question and a really important topic. You use a sales technique called "qualifying", and when you figure it out, you do it all the time, and not just with potential customers, but also with potential investors

More ›